I prefer traditional brands, but if I know them to be sub-par performance-wise, I might skip one. I mostly choose based on the scent, after that. I find myself un-attracted to many artisan soaps due to offputting names, ugly or offensive packaging, etc., however.
Do you mean something like soaps that have a skeleton on their cover or a "Plague Doctor" and other macabre images? Yes, i find them rather odd choices for promoting a product too!